Toy trucks have long been popular with children over a wide range of age groups. One of the frequent attractions of toy trucks is their ability to function on a small scale in a manner similar to their full-sized counterparts. Children often delight in placing various objects in toy moving vans and pick-up trucks and moving those trucks and objects about, as do the full-sized counterparts. Similarly, toy fire trucks are also popular with their ability to carry ladders and other objects for simulating the functions of real fire trucks.
One truck which heretofore has not been popular with parents, however, has been the dump truck. The problems of such a truck stem largely from its specific function, that of dumping sand or gravel in a desired location. Use of such a truck in a realistic manner indoors necessarily results in the dumping of some granular material, generally on the floor. Thus, realistic operation of such a toy dump truck has frequently created a mess on the floor of the owner's house. Nonetheless, the kinetic action of flowing granular material on the bed of a dump truck has long provided fascination for children and has made toy dump trucks attractive to them.